'Mr. Peabody' is a droll and witty film

By Chris Hewitt, Pioneer Press

Posted:
03/05/2014 03:40:34 PM MST

Updated:
03/05/2014 03:40:40 PM MST

There's genius at work in “Mr. Peabody & Sherman,” and I don't just mean the brilliant dog, Peabody. Following the lead of the '60s cartoon on which it's based, “Peabody” finds a clever way to appeal to both children and the adults who bring them.

Peabody is a slightly stuffy Nobel Prize winner and Harvard graduate (valedogtorian, pa-dum-pum) who is raising a boy named Sherman. That role switch is occasionally tough on Sherman, who gets teased at school, but there is compensation in the form of Peabody's supersecret WABAC, a time machine Peabody and Sherman use to travel not just to Egypt and Italy but also to ancient Egypt and Renaissance Italy.

Things get sticky, though, when Sherman and a classmate borrow the machine and, as children who misuse time-travel devices often do, punch a dangerous hole in the space/time continuum.

Ty Burrell, of TV's “Modern Family,” is drolly funny as the voice of Peabody. Like Burrell's TV role, Peabody is an intelligent person who has a tendency to be a bit spacey and who can be more delighted in his own jokes than the people to whom he's telling them.

Peabody is fond of elaborate puns, which give “Mr. Peabody & Sherman” the opportunity to insert humor that will mostly appeal to adults but that won't put off kids. To wit: Of Marie Antoinette, whom the duo have just broken cake with, Peabody says, “She can't have her cake and edict, too.”

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The grandparents who originally enjoyed the cartoons 50 years ago can chuckle at Peabody's cornball puns while their grandchildren can agree with Sherman, who responds every time, “Ha-ha! Wait. I don't get it.”

“Peabody” is a good-looking film, with especially sharp character design, but what it can't figure out how to do is to make what were originally short cartoons work in a 90-minute format.

There's an episodic quality to the script by former Twin Cities playwright and actor Craig Wright (“Orange Flower Water”), which makes the movie feel like it's repeating itself, and there's not much to the difficulties between Sherman and Peabody, which are supposed to be the movie's emotional throughline.

It's obvious that what the script needs is for Peabody, who is perfect at absolutely everything and has no vulnerabilities, to realize he could learn a thing or two about humanity from Sherman, but that theme lurks just out of reach of the movie.

Still, it's fun to watch the pair drop in on King Tut, Antoinette and Leonardo Da Vinci, who provide the film with another clever touch borrowed from the TV episodes: little lessons about history that will stick with kids and that go down painlessly.

“Mr. Peabody & Sherman”

**1/2

Directed by: Rob Minkoff

Starring: Voices of Ty Burrell, Max Charles, Allison Janney

Rated: PG

Should you go? It's not in the league of, say, “The Lego Movie,” but it's good fun.